Fredless
by acarebearwithfangs
Summary: Instead of running away by herself when her parents showed up, Fred turned somewhere else for help. Fred? Who's Fred? The timeline is set during the ATS episode 3x05 "Fredless" and 1x03 episode of Supernatural which Amy Acker guest starred in.
1. Chapter 1

"You take care of your mom okay." Dean patted Lucas on the arm and stood up, leaning across the open car door as Andrea and Sam walked over.

The woman leaned over for a quick kiss on the lips and Dean just smiled. He couldn't lie. One of the perks of the job was being thanked by pretty ladies.

Speaking of pretty ladies, Dean noticed a hot brunette in a miniskirt crossing the road out of the corner of his eye. It looked like she had noticed him too and Dean just smirked. Following the direction of his brother's leer, Sam rolled his eyes and Dean could practically hear him saying in his head, _"You just move on from one to the next, don't you?" _

Dean just threw him an innocent look. Sure he liked Andrea well enough but he could say that about most women. Why commit to one? And then the hot brunette had reached them and to his surprise, pulled Andrea into a hug. From the look on Andrea's face and her awkward body language, it looked like it had taken her by surprise too.

"Fred." The woman pulled back from hugging Andrea but still kept her arms around her. "Oh thank god you're okay. We've been looking all over for you! I don't know what we would've done if the powers –" She abruptly stopped and glanced at Dean, Sam and Lucas. "If the PTB hadn't decided to give us a break for once and send us a clue about where you've been hiding out. Come on, we need to let Angel and the rest of the gang know you're okay. They're looking for you on the other side of town."

To Dean and Sam's alarm, the woman started pulling Andrea away to her protest. They took a step forward but Andrea had already pulled out of her grasp and taken a few steps back.

"I'm sorry. I think you've mistaken me for someone else." Andrea tried to smile politely.

The woman froze and cast a wary glance at the brothers. "Fred, I know you're scared but whatever it is about your parents, we'll protect you. There's no need to make me look like a crazy person in front of these nice people."

"I have no idea who you are or what you're talking about." Andrea started to look scared now and Dean took a protective step in front of her. "My name's not Fred."

The woman gazed at Andrea, stunned for a moment then read the fear and confusion in her face and softened in a kind of bewildered way. "You really don't know, do you?"

"No, I don't." Andrea relaxed a little, seeing the woman come to the conclusion, and then smiled apologetically. "Sorry."

But instead of apologising for the case of mistaken identity and leaving, the woman turned to glare at Dean to his surprise. "Okay, dickwads, what have you done to her?"

"Andrea, why don't you take Lucas for a walk." Dean said calmly as he refused to back down from the woman's glare.

She started to do just that as the woman took a threatening step to get past Dean and he stepped to block her. "Listen, lady," He said as he put his hand on her arm, trying to keep her in place with his grip without seeming like he was, "Andrea is not who you're looking for. She's been through enough without you –"

Dean Winchester does not get surprised by women. The first time Andrea had called him out on his lame pick up line. The second time this stranger simply said "Don't touch me", grabbed his hand and twisted his arm. She was surprisingly strong and that was the only reason he lost balance for a second – because he was taken by surprise. At least that's what he told himself.

"Fuck." He breathed and stretched his arm before turning around and trying to catch up to the woman like Sam.

Andrea was still further up ahead and the woman was following her. Muttering under her breath about she knew they shouldn't have split up, whoever "they" were, she took out a cell phone as she started jogging. Dean tried to ignore her short skirt and tried to focus on what she was saying.

"Gunn, I found her. She was with these two guys. She doesn't know who she is, thinks her name is Andrea. I'm – " Suddenly she lurched backwards with a yelp and dropped her cell.

Sam caught up to her before she fell to the ground. As Dean reached them, it looked like she was having a fit of some kind. He reached down to grab her cell phone and heard a man's panicked voice saying the name "Cordelia" and "Cordy" repeatedly. Dean hung up without a word and bent down to help Sam hold the woman he presumed to be called Cordelia and drew back, shocked when he saw her eyes roll almost to the back of her head. She gasped and seemed to snap out of it, her eyes going back to normal and her body stopped shaking. Breathing heavily, she shakily tried to stand up.

"You guys have the worst timing." She muttered seemingly to herself as Sam stepped back to give her some space but still gripped her arms and exchanged glances at Dean, in an attempt to communicate silently about what to do next.

"Why don't we get you some medical attention." Sam said in a voice Dean supposed was meant to be soothing but the woman – Cordelia – seemed to find condescending.

"I'm fine." She said with thinly veiled impatience. "And even if I wasn't, I wouldn't trust you two with my life, you demon scumbags."

Has Dean mentioned that he does not get surprised by women?

* * *

**AN: **I'm only three episodes into Supernatural and I wanted to write something about Amy Acker's guest starring. I know Charisma and James guest star as well and it really just depends on how my viewing of Supernatural goes, if I decide I want to write sequels but for now, this is a stand alone story.

**Edit: **I originally made Fred the main character because I didn't want to make it a shipping story. However, I have now decided to make Cordelia and Dean the main characters even though this is still not a shipping story.


	2. Chapter 2

Her statement seemed to catch the two by surprise. Before they could respond, she kicked the one that was holding her and sped off again, this time not after Fred – she had already gone and Cordelia really didn't think she had any chance of catching up to her either. The men could run out into sunlight so they weren't vampires. They had to be some kind of demons that could look like humans. Maybe they were warlocks who cast a spell. Whatever they had done to Fred was powerful enough to make her lose her memory and think she was this Andrea person.

She spared a look back but the men – if they were men – were not behind her. Cursing at the lack of weapons on her, she could only hope they had decided not to follow her but she knew it would be dangerous to let her guard down like that. Heaving a big sigh as she ran around the corner, she shook her head and tried to put aside the Fred fiasco for now. Presently, she had to tell the guys about her vision. It wasn't until she had let herself stop to catch her breath that she realised she didn't have her cell phone.

* * *

"Are you kidding me?"

"Did she just call us demons?" Sam asked uneasily as she ran away.

"Maybe it's an expression." Dean offered.

Sam shook his head. "I think there's something going on here that we don't know about."

"You're basing this on what? The ramblings of a crazy woman?"

"Either way, I think we need to stay to protect Andrea at the very least."

Dean nodded. "Now that's something we can agree on."

* * *

Upon reaching the hotel room they had temporarily decided to stay in, it was getting dark. Cordelia found the rest of the guys already gathered there, ready to start looking for her.

"You found me." She said with a bit of humour and then sat down to tell them everything that happened.

Angel wrapped a blanket around her and handed her a mug. He gently brushed her hair back and knelt down so they were eye-level. "Cordy..."

"Angel, I'll be fine." She said softly. "You and Gunn can take care of my vision, Wesley and I will stay here in boring research mode trying to figure out what happened." Taking a sip from her mug, she immediately set it back down. "And once this is all over, I'm going to teach you how to make a real cup of hot chocolate."

* * *

The brothers were at Andrea's house, having talked to her and making a promise of protection.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Andrea insisted one last time before she gave them a grateful smile that accepted their help.

Dean smiled back and noticed Lucas leave the room out of the corner of his eye. Without a word, he got up to follow the kid.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. My brother and I will take care of it." Dean tried to sound reassuring as he reached Lucas' room.

Lucas shook his head and seemed to revert back to his shy self as he spoke. "You've got the wrong person."

"I know." Dean said gently. "This woman thinks your mom is someone else."

"No." He shook his head. "_You've _got the wrong person."

Dean looked at the kid, taken aback. "Do you know something?"

Lucas handed him a drawing and as Dean studied it, a sinking feeling in his stomach trickled down.

There were two people outside a club he recognised. One seemed to be Cordelia. The other was a vampire holding her in a predatory stance as she bled from a cut on her arm.

Understanding that Lucas was saying Cordelia was the one who needed to be protected, Dean shot out of the room.

* * *

Hearing a groan of pain, Wesley quickly left his books and went to help Cordy. Once her agonising screams had subsided, she took some shaky breaths before standing up.

"Cordy, what is it?"

"I have to protect Angel." She said, grabbing a crossbow from the weapons bag.

"Cordelia, let me. You need to rest." Wesley moved to grab it from her hands but she was already out the door. All Wesley could do was curse, grab an axe and try to catch up.

* * *

"I always thought vampires didn't exist." Sam shook his head in disappointment that he never thought to do research on them until now.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Dean said, guessing at what he was thinking. "Dad never said anything about them."

"Yeah but in our line of work, we really shouldn't be ruling anything out."

"Our line of work?" Dean grinned. "Now you're sounding like a hunter."

They gripped their weapons tighter as they walked past the club. Seeing as how they didn't have any wooden stakes – and why would they when they were never told of the existence of vampires? – the brothers had brought with them machetes to behead them and hoped it would do the trick.

"So why are we protecting her?" Sam asked. "She wants to hurt Andrea."

"I think you were right when you said there's something going on that we don't know about." Dean said. "She could be crazy or evil or good. But if there's any chance she's good, we need to save her to find out."

Cautiously, they inched closer around the corner and straightened up in surprise. A group of vampires had cornered some humans in an alley but that wasn't what surprised them. The humans didn't need protecting as they ran away from the chaos. There were already two people fighting the vampires like a couple of pros. Staring dumbfounded, the brothers watched the fight, looking for ways to help but the pair seemed to be holding up just fine.

"Think they're hunters?" Dean murmured to Sam.

"Not unless vampires hunt their own kind." Sam nodded towards the scene in front of them. One of the vampires had knocked the pale skinned fighter onto the ground. When he emerged, his face had changed.

The brothers were now on full alert, gripping their weapons tighter, looking for an opportunity to jump in when Cordelia came up behind them.

"Stay back." Dean put his arm in front to block her. To his surprise, she punched him in the face.

His yelp finally alerted the two hunters – vampires, he corrected himself – to their presence as they finished killing off the others.

"What the hell!" He cried, massaging his nose. "We're here to protect you!"

"You're here to kill Angel." She said calmly then lifted up her crossbow and aimed it at his throat.

Sam came from behind and knocked the crossbow out of her hand, leaving a cut on her arm in the process. The brothers prepared to fight but to both their surprise, the vampire had taken a protective hold of her. Looking slightly uncomfortable at the sight and smell of blood, his face shifted back to his human mask as he examined her cut in concern before turning to the brothers.

"I usually don't hurt humans but you're lucky it's nothing serious." He said with a quiet threat to his voice.

It was then that another man happened to enter the scene holding an axe. "Ah hah!" He said triumphantly. "We've got you cornered now!" With a hint of a British accent, he swung his axe at them only to have it wildly miss and strike the wall instead. Dean raised his eyebrow as the axe seemed to be stuck and the man struggled to get it free.

"Whoa, hold up there, England." The other hunter pulled down his hoodie and stepped up to free the axe from the wall. "What did I tell you about holding an axe? You gotta grip it higher on the handle to have more control."

"Well maybe if Angel would devote more of his time to teaching the rest of us to fight and not just Cordy –"

"I never thought I'd say this," Cordelia snorted, "But Wesley does have a point. Just because he has a Y chromosome doesn't mean he knows how to fight any more than I do."

"I wasn't aware you knew what a Y chromosome was." The British man in glasses sniped.

"Just because I actually had a social life in high school doesn't mean I never paid attention in class." She hit back.

Dean let out a low whistle as they continued to bicker and looked over at Sam to see what their next move would be.

"You two, can we just take care of Cordy's cut first." The vampire seemed exasperated.

"Ohmygod, I'm so sorry, this must be killing you!" Cordelia covered her cut with her hands. "Like waving candy in front of a baby."

"You know what he is?" Dean asked with surprise.

The group's chatter suddenly cut to a silence as they looked at him.

"_You_ know what he is?" The man in the glasses – Wesley, Dean presumed – asked.

"Angel, these are the guys I was telling you about, the ones who had Fred! Only she didn't know she was Fred, they brainwashed her or something. They're demons!" Cordelia bent to pick up her crossbow from the ground.

Sam and Dean looked at each other briefly and nodded as they gripped their weapons tighter but the vampire, Angel – what kind of a name was Angel anyway, especially for a vampire – stepped in.

"Did you not hear what I said before? They're humans." He said with his hands up, apparently wanting peace.

"How do you know?" The man in the hoodie cautiously held his weapon in front of him.

"I can smell it." Angel replied to the man, never taking his eyes of Sam and Dean and then started to speak to them. "It's okay. You can lower your weapons. They're human. It's just me but I have a soul, I help people. We're the good guys. And if you're...if you've been caught in a bad situation, if some demons threatened you to keep Fred hostage, you can tell us. We can help you. You can help us. We can help her. See how that works out? We can all help each other..."

"That's a very convincing speech." Dean said. "And it might've worked if you hadn't kept inching towards us, looking for an opportunity to get our weapons."

And with that, the brothers surged forward to fight.


End file.
